Hagia Sophia, Istanbul

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This beautiful apse mosaic, depicting of the enthroned Virgin and Child, is the oldest of the surviving mosaics in Hagia Sophia.

The mosaic dates from the second half of the 9th century, during the reign of Emperor Michael III (842-867) or Basil I (867-886). The figurative mosaic replaced a cross mosaic from the Iconoclast period.

According to the 13th-century Russian pilgrim Antony of Novgorod, an oral tradition attributed this fine mosaic to the celebrated painter Lazarus, whose hands had been burned because he insisted on painting icons in the time of the iconoclast Emperor Theophilus.

Dating to the same period are the mosaics of the Archangel Michael and Archangel Gabriel, protectors of the Virgin and Child, that stand to either side of this mosaic.

Photo © Dick Osseman.